Diamond W Auctioneers started on the 12th day of October, 1967. The FFA at Delta High School was crowning a Queen for their activities. They asked me to call the Cake Auction. For 24 minutes I found myself to be the center of the world – with a microphone in my hand! From that specific day, I have viewed myself as a “Microphone Man.”

A year later, I went to Auction School, and learned, that to be a Bid Caller, one simply puts a hand full marbles in his mouth, and begins to count backwards from 100. Every time he makes a mistake, he spits out a marble, and starts over. “When you have lost all your marbles, you are an, Auctioneer.”

The business has taken me all over the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. I have sold Caterpillar Crawler tractors for Royals in Saudi Arabia, and Australian beef by the Pound. In 2001, I even sold a celebrity’s Cowboy Hat, at a charity Auction, which raised $50,000.00 for a well-known performer who had fallen on hard times, and was battling brain cancer. (I shall forever stand in awe at the angel-spirit, exhibited by two ladies who organized the whole event.)

Along the way, I have called bids over everything from wall art, to toys, to alfalfa hay. The opportunity has presented itself to describe ninety-point bull rides, four-second bulldogging runs, and the reining performances of some of the smoothest show horses in the country.

Beginning in 2002, a fascination with rhyming verse took hold, and I began telling Wood Family legends and yarns, in the form of Cowboy Poetry. This little diversion led to major stage performances, as both a featured performer, and as on-stage master of ceremonies.

One of the more interesting twists in the career of the “microphone man,” has led to actual competition, as a reciter and composer of Cowboy Poetry, resulting in seven event wins, and two All-Around titles, in Abilene Kansas, Montrose Colorado, and at the Cowboy Legends, celebration in Kanab, Utah.

If full disclosure is important, I have done everything, not illegal, to put food on the table, and shoes on the feet of our children. The greatest accolade I can give our six kids, is that none of them has been a heartache to their Mother.

Now, much closer to the back end of my career than to its inception, I am confident, that a kind Diety will continue to put me in front of remarkable opportunities to use the talents he has developed in me, to feed my family, bring smiles to the faces of my friends, entertain paying customers, and inspire all who are in need of a, Hand Up!